Gregory Vlastos:

A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator:

Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991

Title:

Gregory Vlastos Papers

Dates:

circa 1930s-1991

Extent:

100 document boxes (42.00 linear feet)

Abstract:

The papers of philosopher Gregory Vlastos,
a scholar of ancient Greek philosophy who spent most of his career studying the thought
of
Plato and Socrates, document his studies, his writings, and his career as an educator
at
several American universities.

The papers of philosopher Gregory Vlastos (1907-1991), a scholar of ancient Greek
philosophy who spent most of his career studying the thought of Plato and Socrates,
document
his studies, his writings, and his career as an educator at several American universities,
especially Cornell, Princeton, and The University of California at Berkeley. The papers
are
arranged in six series: I. Correspondence and Offprint Files, II. Study, Lecture,
and
Teaching Files, III. Works, IV. Works by Others, V. Miscellaneous, and VI. Offprints
Removed
from Manuscripts.

The Correspondence and Offprint Files (35 boxes) in Series I. represent Vlastos' extensive
correspondence with other philosophers, classicists, former students, academics, and
others.
The files are arranged alphabetically by correspondent name, and generally include
not only
letters received, but copies of Vlastos' responses. Many of the letters contain significant
debates on philosophical and scholarly issues, including commentary on classical texts.
Among the correspondents are Julia Annas, Richard B. Brandt, Hector-Neri Castañeda,
Harold
Cherniss, Alan Code, Donald Davidson, Gail J. Fine, Dorothea Frede, Kurt von Fritz,
Gilbert
H. Harman, Carl G. Hempel, Terence H. Irwin, Jonathan Lear, Anthony A. Long, Jürgen
Mittelstrass, Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, Amélie Rorty, Richard Rorty, John R. Searle,
W. J.
Verdenius, and many others. Offprints received with incoming letters were kept with
the
relevant file if they were annotated by Vlastos or otherwise provided useful context.
All
other offprints were separated to Series VI., Offprints Removed from Manuscripts.

Series II. Study, Lecture, and Teaching Files (20 boxes) contains Vlastos' files for
classes, presentations, and his extensive working files of study notes. The files
are
arranged alphabetically, chiefly by subject. Topics include his primary interests
in the
pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, ethics, social philosophy, and politics, as well as
his
explorations into other subjects such as Homer, Sophocles, Thucydides, Aristotle,
Plotinus,
Kant, and Marx. Many of the study files show Vlastos' working method: notes taken
from
careful reading of texts and secondary sources assembled together with draft writings
sent
to colleagues for comments, exchanges of correspondence with colleagues, and his subsequent
revisions to the drafts. Most of the lecture and teaching files date from Cornell
and
Princeton, but there are also notes and related materials created for his summer seminars
for college teachers at Berkeley.

Manuscripts of articles and books written or edited by Vlastos make up Series III.
Works
(17 boxes); they are arranged alphabetically by title. This series is dominated by
materials
for the highly acclaimed Socrates, Ironist and Moral
Philosopher (1991) and its posthumously published sequel, Socratic Studies (edited by Myles Burnyeat, 1994). The manuscripts
are sometimes accompanied by notes and research (sometimes overlapping with materials
in
Series II.) as well as correspondence and reviews.

Series IV. Works by Others (4 boxes), contains manuscripts of works by colleagues
or
students sent to Vlastos for his review. These files are arranged alphabetically by
creator
of the work. Frequently included with these are comments by Vlastos, either in the
form of
annotations on the manuscripts themselves, or written on separate sheets.

A small group of miscellaneous files, arranged alphabetically by title, makes up Series
V.
Miscellaneous (1 box). Among these are an address files, a commonplace book, royalty
statements and related correspondence.

Series VI. Offprints Removed from Manuscripts (23 boxes), holds the offprints without
annotations or meaningful context that were removed from correspondence sent to Vlastos.
The
offprints are arranged alphabetically by author, and subsequently by title when multiple
titles are present for a single author.

Note: An Index of Names and Subjects is provided at the end of this finding aid to
facilitate
detailed access to the contents of the Vlastos Papers. Surveying the Index first is
recommended to a gain quicker understanding of the subject content especially.

Of the approximately 300 books from Vlastos' library that accompanied the archive,
those
with significant annotations by Vlastos (229) were added to the Ransom Center Library;
these
are cataloged in the online University of Texas Library Catalog. The remainder were
placed
either in the general collection of the UT Library or the Albert P. Brogan Reading
Room of
the UT Philosophy Department. The Ransom Center also holds a small amount of electronic
records received in the form of back-up diskettes and a zip drive with files copied
from
Vlastos' computer hard drive.